We anticipated as much, so we rang up executive producer Robert Kirkman to get all the grisly details behind Lori’s (Sarah Wayne Callies) dramatic, devastating death, as well as scoop on what her passing means for her inconsolable next of kin. And yes, we also got to the bottom of the episode’s other major casualty, T-Dog.

TVLINE | How and when did you break the news to Sarah that she was getting killed off?
[Exec producer] Glen Mazzara broke the news to her before we started filming this season. We were in the writers’ room crafting this season and that event was something that had been planning for a while. And as we were telling the story, [Lori’s death] just kept getting moved up and moved up, because we wanted to make this season extremely intense and the first few episodes absolutely explosive and jarring. We had to tell her pretty early on because we knew that it was going to be a pretty big deal. It was unfortunate to lose her, but it does so much for all of the other characters; we really thought it was the best route to go. And Sarah was absolutely professional about it. I think all of the actors on this show understand that it’s The Walking Dead, and, unfortunately, anything can happen. Any character can go at any minute.

TVLINE | You mentioned some of the pros related to killing her off sooner rather than later. What were the cons?
I don’t want to go into all the cons because I don’t want to reveal the different things that we can’t do now. But it was something that we put a lot of thought and care into. There were definitely a lot of cons. She was an absolutely integral part of the show. And not having her on the show is somewhat jarring, but that’s what we were going for. There is going to be so much going on with Rick and Carl coming out of this. It’s going to change those characters so much moving forward, which will affect our stories in pretty positive ways as the season progresses. It all seemed worth it.

TVLINE | What does this do to Carl?
Carl really is the central focus of this show. A lot of the show deals with what it is like for a child to be growing up in this world, and having his mother protect him thus far and try to maintain his sense of, “He is a child. We have to keep certain things from him.” That’s deteriorated to a certain extent this season. Having her taken out of the picture completely is really going to radically change how Carl is treated and how he’s going to continue to develop as he grows older in this world — and also growing up in the world where people are dropping around him like flies. Life and death — they have very different meanings for him. He’s going to grow into a radically different human being. It’s one thing to be an adult and thrown into this world and have to realize what’s different, but a child doesn’t really realize what’s different. By the time this kid is 16 he’s not really going to know what his life should have been like; he’s just going to know what’s around him. And that’s going to be very interesting.

TVLINE | I suspect there’s going to be a lot of debate about whether Lori’s wish to sacrifice her own life for her child’s was selfless or selfish. I mean, she’s now saddling Rick with two children in the apocalypse.
I think it’s questionable whether she had a decision. She definitely knew that the chances of her getting out of that alive were slim to none. That’s an extremely dangerous procedure to be performed by Maggie, who doesn’t really have any experience dealing with that kind of thing. She kind of knew from the get-go that the chances of her making it out of there were slim-to-none. She knew the score and acted accordingly.

TVLINE | The smile she shared with Rick in the prison yard – what was the underlying subtext there?
Maybe that was her way of saying goodbye? I definitely think that’s open to interpretation. We definitely wanted to give people the sense that if she had survived, those two would have rekindled their romance and they would’ve gotten over their issues. There was definitely a softening of their relationship that was occurring. We really wanted to give people the sense that if she had only stuck around for a little bit longer everything would’ve been OK. But in the world of The Walking Dead, nothing is going to be OK for very long.

TVLINE | Safe to say her death will accelerate Rick’s descent into darkness?
That’s unavoidable at this point. We’re going to go in some pretty interesting, unexpected directions with him. He’s a guy who has taken on this mantle of leadership and he’s watched as his leadership kind of resulted in death after death after death. And now he’s lost his wife, which he’s definitely going to blame himself for. So, he’s going to be questioning everything now. It’s going to take a big toll on his confidence and his leadership skills at exactly the wrong time, because the Governor and the people of Woodbury are looming on the horizon. That’s a conflict we’re definitely heading for. Now we’ve got a Rick Grimes who is dealing with quite a bit of stuff. He isn’t necessarily going to have the time to focus on this new governor issue as it emerges.

TVLINE | The performances in this episode, particularly from Andrew and Sarah, were astonishing. Were you on the set for this episode? What was the mood?
I wasn’t on set that day, but I will say that entire sequence between Sarah Wayne Callies and Chandler Riggs leading into the scene outside with Andrew Lincoln was so emotional I actually have trouble watching it without tearing up a little bit — and I’ve seen it like a 100 times. I’ve got to hand it to Sang Kyo Kim, who wrote that script, and Guy Ferland, who directed it, and all the actors. They really kind of elevated that material to a crazy degree. It really is to me the best example of this show. It’s a zombie show about these crazy monsters running around trying to eat people, but for it to be so emotional on a strictly human level and really be kind of a tearjerker is just a really cool thing that makes me really proud.

TVLINE | Will we see Lori again? Maybe in a flashback? Or a dream?
I’m not going to say. There may be some snippets [of her]. There could be a flashback eventually. We definitely want to have Sarah Wayne Callies back anytime we can. How that would happen remains to be seen.

TVLINE | The episode claimed another victim — T-Dog. Was it important to you to send him out a hero?
Yeah. That guy’s really stepped it up this season and has really been one of the driving forces in Rick’s crew. To have him go out any other way would’ve seemed like a real tragic loss and it wouldn’t have done the character justice. We felt like it was the best way to send him off.

cant stand lori’s son wish there was less of him i like the old man with one leg both ladies and one arm mans brother i think they should all go to the mayors town and more played on that,i cant stand rick love the mayors story hope they dont kill that off too soon looks intresting and could go far

For me it was the writing that made me want her to be written out of the script, not the actress. By comparisson Debra in Dexter should be written out of the script because the actress is terrible as well as the part they write for her. In Walking Dead if you look at the circumstances surrounding the survivors. The last thing the so-called leader needs is a hen pecking, nosy wife. Now someone that should b e killed out of the script is the Australian actor that plays the cop. Whata poop actor!!!

Umm if you are talking about Rick, he is brittish not austrailian. How the heck is he a “poop” actor? Did u see any of his acting? Could u have broken down like that? The scene after Lori died was amazing acting. The writers also did an amazing job writing Lori’s character. SWC is an amazing actress too. I would like to see u act sometime and see if u are as good as Andrew Lincolns eyelash at acting.

I agree with erikas comment about everyone makes mistakes so did lori, people you think they by putting I never liked her or she’s annoying is gonna make you well liked no its not? She wasn’t annoying she was doing what any wife would do in a situation, yes she made a very big mistake but she was still with rick till the end and its her character not real life..

I was sad to see her go too. Actually I was devastated. Lori was my fave and I cried for hours and I still cry everytime I see it. I know its just a character but now all I have is prison break and season 1 and 2 of TWD. Sarah Wayne Callies is my favorite actress

IT WAS A SHAME ANDREA WAS KILLED OFF…BESIDES BEING A FOX, AT LEAST SHE KNEW HOW TO ACT!
THEY NEED TO GET RID OF DUI OLD MAN SCOT WILSON WITH HIS DEMOCRAT ATTITUDE(CARL KILLING THE KID IN THE WOODS-BRAVO CARL-THE KID ALWAYS KEPT HIS FINGERS NEAR THE HAND GUARD BY THE TRIGGER THE ENTIRE TIME-HE SHOULD HAVE IMMEDIATELY DROPPED THE SHOTGUN)!

Each week the show gets more gory and now they are killing off the cast one by one. Who will be left? Lori did what any mother would to save her child. Apparently if she did nothing, both of them would die. This is a horrible world for a child to be born, but it also means a rebirth of the human race.

I never agreed with the idea of Lori having the child. It sounds bad, but I would have been perfectly fine with a miscarriage or stillborn baby. I would NEVER willingly bring a kid into that world. It’s bad enough that Carl’s dealing with it. Plus, that kid’s going to weigh them down. It needs formula, they don’t have any. It will cry and make loud noises unaware of the zombies it will attract. I don’t care what Rick said, I would have taken a few trips down the stairs before I curse my child with the zombie apocalypse.

Also, T-Dog went out like a champ. Loved that. Another poster said something about Lori being more unlikeable than her comic counterpart, I say that about Andrea. God she’s flighty, easily influenced and all around dumb. What the heck happened to her? Last season she was blindly following Shane, but at least she had an edge. She seems sedated now.

The writing is kinda shake-y. They need to bring in writers who know how to write for an ensemble so that we don’t end up with more characters like T-dog that are there but you don’t really know. He got further than I thought he would, so I’m glad he got his big heroic moment. My one complaint so far is that they didn’t set the entire episode in the prison. If there was ever an episode that needed to be fully realized, it was this one. The idea of a gauntlet through every level of the prison is genius. Loved that aspect.

Lori was destined to die. She died in the comic book. I thought they would wait until the end of the season though. I definitely think her characterization on the show was horrible. I am sad to see her go though.

I agree. As annoying as she was last season she had some redeeming qualities about her on the last few episodes…then BAM and happy trails to you, Lori. It was the most suprising, shocking moment!!!! This show has thrown me for a loop…even moreso than Breaking Bad. I love it!

This was SUCH an emotionally draining episode! Andrew Lincoln’s acting when Rick found out had me bawling. It was SO intense. Props to Chandler Riggs, SWC, Andrew Lincoln, and Lauren Cohan for being FLAWLESS actors in this episode.

The site staff doesn’t understand this concept. When someone mentions being spoiled in the comments they always get a rude comment of “you clicked on the story, it’s your own fault!” but don’t care they use photos that give the whole thing away WITHOUT CLICKING INSIDE THE STORY. Same thing here as with Etta’s death on Fringe, they used her photo and the headline was about a killed off character. It’s rude and alienating to half the country.

They might come for general TV news, not news on a particular show (much less the latest, already-aired episode of a particular show). Besides, it’s not like the episode was hyped or anything – not that I know of, at least – so there’d be no reason for anyone to especially fearful of being spoiled.

Because these people have no common sense apparently. EVERY single website that deals with TV shows has articles about last nights episode… why in the world would this one be any different? What do you people (the ones complaining about the show being ruined for you) expect them to do… personally email you each time they are going to write an article about a show to make sure you have watched it?? Or maybe they could just stay a week behind in all the articles to make sure they fit into YOUR schedule. They could add a tagline of – “TVLINE – keeping you up to date on all the shows you should have watched a week ago, that no one is talking about anymore”

Someone help me with the arithmetic. How does “Intense” and “Heartbreaking” and a photo of Lori (who’s actually with the kid in actual article) add up to a spoiler? if I were to play dumb for a moment I’d if anything surmise the kid died? or is KenBud just looking to be “That Guy” this week?

Definitely a great episode tonight, maybe the best of the series. I think its great that this is maybe the one show that isn’t afraid to kill its main characters…Sarah was supposed to be the lead female character on this show

Game of Thrones IS based on the novels written by Mr Martin, who wanted to make the story somewhat ‘realistic’ with the notion that ‘no one is invincible’. Granted, I was crushed when certain characters died but, well, it keeps the story realistic and flowing.

Even tho I did not like her…sad to see her go!…and the group is getting down to no one originally left…some of these really made the show!..it was definetly a tear jerker tonight…I keep waiting and hoping the black guy with his son..(can’t remember their names)…to show up from the first series…be nice for him and Rick to take over Woodbury!…:)

Wow ..what an amazing episode. So heartbreaking. Such superb acting… I wasn’t a fan of Lori (not in the comic either) but it was still very sad to see her go..I also thought she would last till seasons end too. I’m really liking the governor and Michonne but i still wish Andrea would step up and be the character i love from the comic.

wow, this show keeps getting more intense! I kept crying during the birth because I knew…i can’t believe they killed off both of them! But the walking dead is def my fave show. Just so depressing the way lori died. T-dog was soooooo brave & an awesome guy! I love rick & daryl so they better keep them alive!

Best episode of The Walking Dead yet. Lori redeemed herself this season just enough for us to care about her death. T-Dog although a vital member of the group will be easily replaced by the inmates. Why are there always cliffhangers involving Carol? Couldn’t they have shown her walking out to the prison yard at the end. Also I hope the Woodbury storyline gets better because it slows down the action at the prison.

I missed the live episode and had resolved to watch it tomorrow night on dvr, but I kept running across these twitter posts in reference to this episode. Particularly one that said “another one bites the dust…”. I immediately started watching, assuming that they would kill Hershel (who else could it have been?). I was SO not ready for that- T-dog AND Lori?! Barely into mid season?? This show shocks and amazes each and every week and I just love it!

with all do respect, how can anyone spin it that lori was selfish or spiteful in wanting her a baby to live? robert kirkman had it right when he replied that she didn’t really have a choice. there was a 99% chance lori would die as a result of childbirth and she knew that. not only can you blame a mother for wanting her child to live, but it’s also not a bad idea to start adding to the human population. its like in Battlestar (nerd alert) – if the human race is going to survive, they’re going to have to start having babies. if the baby hadn’t been born lori would have still died which i’d argue would be an even worse fate for the zombie slaughtering crew. even in zombieland, a baby is a source of hope.

I don’t really think you can compare the situation on TWD with the situation on BSG. In BSG the human race had a much more solid footing in the world. Though they were hunted and had no place to land, they did have the security of their ships, which could jump away if a threat was overtaking them. In TWD you can only get as far away as you can run. Walkers can follow them in way that the Cylons could not follow the crew of Galactica.

the way i see it, they’re all still under constant threat of attack & death. look at ’33 minutes’. yes, they eventually shook them, just like now in TWD they’ve found a pseudo-safe haven in the prison behind thick walls and barbed wire, but even those are no guarantee from surprises. thematically & stylistically, the world of BSG is more baby-compatible. the world of TWD is not, so i’m basically agreeing with you, but i still think in either show babies need to get borned (juno reference? lol).

I think Carl didnt really shoot his mom and Carol will find Lori and stitch her up and nurse her back to health. That will be the light Carol shows. Why else did she waste all that time expiermenting giving birth on zombies.

I think Carol spent all that time practicing because it’s smart to be prepared. It’s just realistic that it didn’t work out perfectly.
It adds a biting gravity to the situation that you can plan and be prepared, but in the end, it might all be for nothing.

Plus, I thought that Carol was the zombie eating T-Dog. It looked like she was wearing a similar hat, and I’m pretty sure Rick said her name after standing over the bodies.

This episode was so shocking and emotional i cannot believe that lori died it is by far the best episode yet, i do feel a different way about the show now because she was a main caracter and it will not be the same without her, maybe there is better to come but i think ratings will go down, but once you kill off a main caracter were do you go from there, also rick has already been mad since season 2 now how much more crazy, i just dont feel the same way about the show they could have atleast had them happy befor she died they were always so distant

I really don’t give a crap about this show but let me just say….EVERYONE NEEDS TO DIE But Daryl & Rick! Everybody else is freaking annoying. Andrea needs to get hurt throat slashed SOON! I hate Laurie Holden or whatever the hell is her name. SHE NEEDS TO DIE HERSELF! She stinks as a actress & is nothing but a cross eyed freak! The chick who plays carol NEEDS TO DIE TOO & fast just like Andrea. If they don’t die soon? I’ll kill them myselfs. this show sucks now without Lori. That Maggie & michonne need to die too. All the girls but Lori. Rick & Daryl are freaking amazing. T-dog, Merle awesome. I hope this show gets cancelled & just finish off already. So annoying!

There’s this amazing device called a remote control. If you press the ‘off’ button, you can stop watching a show you don’t like. It might save you from becoming a crazy freak who wish real people would die because you don’t like them.

to Lexi ; you are a sick person, this is a show and saying the actors need to die is the stupidest thing i have ever read, i imagine you are in need of medication or maybe just to get off the internet cause you seem very unstable and need help. if you don’t care about this show why are you on here? please get help :-)

I guarantee Carol will come back in a big way at just the right moment. Tdogs sacrifice and the allusions to God and destiny were not in vain. I guess there wasn’t much to do with his character anymore but I personally like the deaths spaces out. I just want to say that Carl has underdone a 180 in terms of his character and that’s a good thing. i really like his little “fling” with maggies sister… Sorry cant remember her name. Oh and finally I’m really really not looking forward to having a baby in the show. Hopefully we don’t get lots of screentime dedicated to looking after a baby.

OMG… I am so sad that TDog is dead and I hope Carol isn’t but now that Lori is dead, I feel bad for not liking her. It is like that person you really don’t like but find out died and then there is guilt.

Sarah did a great job making us hate her last season and redeem her this season. Sad to see her go, but interested to see what this will do to Rick.
T-Dog’s death was wonderfully heroic. The only thing I never liked was that his character did not develop like all the others. He had more lines in his last show than he had in all the shows put together. Very disappointing…
Don’t forget, this is a show about people surviving the dead. We are going to lose people, and it would not be fair for the whole group to have ‘safe’ cards.

i really dont understand why people dont like lori shes just as normal as the rest what do u expect when shes lost an confused an dont know what to think and is happning she didnt plan it at all where is the intense feelings goin to come from now she is a good dang actress an is goin to be missed on the show without her its like they have lost diggnity because she is the one who kept carol goin an andrea…lori was a dedicated mother an a good person she just wanted the best at the moment what she cud offur she did save hershel come on show some love!! just an oppion but yea no more drama for her now we cant see if there feelings for one another get any better.. im sadd an btw jerry i wud hope a mother wud worry about their sons so call as many times as you need…! no hard feelings just a show but yea

All of you who are saying after the fact that you are glad she is dead, are not true fans of the show. Weather you liked her of you didn’t that scene was horrific. This group is getting picked apart and her dimise shows that. You cannot follow these caracters through all the things they have so far gone through and then say, after a scene like that, that you are so glad she’s dead. Just saying!